"'
'He has seen much service,' answered Fergus, 'and one is sometimes
astonished to find how much nonsense and reason are mingled in his
composition. I wonder what can be troubling his mind; probably something
about Rose. Hark! the English are setting their watch.'
The roll of the drum and shrill accompaniment of the fifes swelled up the
hill--died away--resumed its thunder--and was at length hushed. The
trumpets and kettle-drums of the cavalry were next heard to perform the
beautiful and wild point of war appropriated as a signal for that piece
of nocturnal duty, and then finally sunk upon the wind with a shrill and
mournful cadence.
The friends, who had now reached their post, stood and looked round them
ere they lay down to rest. The western sky twinkled with stars, but a
frost-mist, rising from the ocean, covered the eastern horizon, and
rolled in white wreaths along the plain where the adverse army lay
couched upon their arms. Their advanced posts were pushed as far as the
side of the great ditch at the bottom of the descent, and had kindled
large fires at different intervals, gleaming with obscure and hazy lustre
through the heavy fog which encircled them with a doubtful halo.
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